I posted the below question in another forum. Still having no luck with this small personal research. Anyone here can help? Perhaps if someone can help to translate some of these phrases into Pali, I can try to search for that using the Chattha Sangayana CD. Any other suggestions?

The Buddha once said, 'There may be many disciples who stay with me, follow me by holding my hand or clinging to my robes, thereby thinking that they are close to me. On the other hand, there may be some disciples who are far away from me and who have not even seen me, but if their minds are pure, even though they are staying far away, they are indeed very close to me. Those who stay with me but exist only with polluted minds, are in fact not at all close to me.

some1 wrote:I posted the below question in another forum. Still having no luck with this small personal research. Anyone here can help? Perhaps if someone can help to translate some of these phrases into Pali, I can try to search for that using the Chattha Sangayana CD. Any other suggestions?

The Buddha once said, 'There may be many disciples who stay with me, follow me by holding my hand or clinging to my robes, thereby thinking that they are close to me. On the other hand, there may be some disciples who are far away from me and who have not even seen me, but if their minds are pure, even though they are staying far away, they are indeed very close to me. Those who stay with me but exist only with polluted minds, are in fact not at all close to me.

Does anyone know its original source in the Nikayas? Is that from one of the sutta?

I cannot help you; however, I suspect it is a paraphrase - and a very, very loose one at that - of a text, but which, I cannot tell you. It will to see what we can find.

This being is bound to samsara, kamma is his means for going beyond. -- SN I, 38.

“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?” HPatDH p.723

>> Do you see a man wise[enlightened/ariya]in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.<<-- Proverbs 26:12

'Monks, even if a monk should take hold of the edge of my outer garment and should walk close behind me, step for step, yet if he should be covetous, strongly attracted by pleasures of the senses, malevolent in thought, of corrupt mind and purpose, of confused recollection, inattentive and not contemplative, scatter-brained, his sense-faculties uncontrolled, then he is far from me and I am far from him.'

'Monks, if the monk should be staying even a hundred miles away, yet he is not covetous, not strongly attracted by the pleasures of the senses, not malevolent in thought, not of corrupt mind and purpose, his collection firmly set, attentive, contemplative, his thoughts be one-pointed, restrained in his sense-faculties, then he is near me and I am near him.'

That is a good passage. It always reminded me of this passage in the Christian bible:

According to the Gospel of John, Jesus says, "you believe in me since you havetouched me, blessed are those who do not see me, who do not touch me, but still believe."

(Jesus referring to Thomas believing only after he "touches" the wounds.) The main difference between the Buddhist and Christian passages being that the Buddhist focuses on mental purification, while the Christian focuses on faith.

Finally, I found it. The same passage is mentioned in Ajahn Buddhadasa's "Lak Dhamma Samrab Nak Seuksa" or "Buddha Dhamma for University Students" translated from Thai by Ariyananda Bhikkhu (Roderick S. Bucknell).

The Scriptural References in that book provided the source as Itivuttaka III, v, iii.